The Peterkins

LIEUTENANT GEORGE WILLIAM PETERKIN, D. D., LL. D., first bishop of the Protestant Episcopal church of the diocese of West Virginia, was born at Clear Spring, Md., March 21, 1841. He was the son of Rev. Joshua Peterkin, who subsequently had charge of the Episcopal churches at Frederick City and Urbana, Md.; Berryville, Va.; Princeton, N. J., and became rector of St, James church, Richmond, in 1855. George W. Peterkin was educated at the Episcopal high school near Alexandria, and at the university of Virginia, and subsequently while teaching school in Fauquier county and at Richmond became a candidate for the ministry. While studying theology with his father he became a member of Company F, First regiment Virginia troops, in January, 1861, and with this command on April 17, 1861, was mustered into active service. The company was assigned to the Twenty-first Virginia regiment, and in July, 1861, was sent upon the campaign in western Virginia under Gen. R. E. Lee. After recovering from a severe attack of typhoid fever in the fall, Private Peterkin rejoined the regiment, then in Gen. Stonewall Jackson's command in the valley of the Shenandoah, and participated in the Bath and Romney expedition, during which he was promoted corporal. Soon afterward he became sergeant, and after participating in the battle of Kernstown he was promoted second lieutenant of his company. He took part in the battles of McDowell, Front Royal and Winchester, and earned promotion to the rank of adjutant of the regiment, May 28, 1862. Then joining in the movement of Jackson's command against McClellan, he was promoted lieutenant and assigned June 3d to the position of aide-de-camp on the staff of Gen. W. N. Pendleton, chief of artillery. In this capacity he served through the Seven Days' campaign, and throughout the remainder of the war, including notably the great battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the defense of Petersburg, and the retreat to Appomattox, where he was surrendered and paroled. Then resuming his theological studies he was graduated at the seminary near Alexandria in 1868, and at the same time ordained deacon by Bishop Johns. He passed the deaconate with his father, and in 1869, being ordained priest, he became rector of St. Stephen's church, Culpeper, Va., and rector of the Memorial church, Baltimore, in 1873. May 30, 1878, he was consecrated bishop of West Virginia, at Wheeling. His episcopal seat and residence is at Parkersburg. His life is one of great devotion and incessant activity. In addition to his regular work the demand upon him for work without his own field, such as sermons and addresses and labors connected with the general missionary operations of the church, is such as to compel him to travel annually many thousands of miles. Extremely popular in his church, he also enjoys the comradeship and high esteem of Confederate veterans everywhere on account of his faithful service in the cause of the South. He received the degree of doctor of divinity from Kenyon college, Ohio, and from Washington and Lee university, in 1878, and the degree of LL. D. from the latter institution in 1892. In 1868 he was married to Constance Gardner, daughter of Cassius F. Lee, of Alexandria, Va. She died in Balthnore in 1877. In June, 1884, he married Marion McIntosh, daughter of John Stewart, of Brook Hill, Va.
From Confederate Military History, edited by Gen. Clement A. Evans, 1899